


Moonlit Masquerade: Colors of Autumn

by Rohad



Series: Moonlit Masquerade [5]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gay, Hurt/Comfort, Lumity, The Owl House - Freeform, toh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26688529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rohad/pseuds/Rohad
Summary: The leaves aren't the only things changing color.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Series: Moonlit Masquerade [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1935769
Comments: 59
Kudos: 770
Collections: We_Love_Lumity





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a disclaimer for a short, mild make out scene (two kisses) in the flashback that is italicized in pt 2
> 
> This is your warning and reminder that this story particularly short is rated T

Luz is early today. She'd been getting to school earlier and earlier as the weeks have worn on.

She always has been an early riser, just not an early to do anything after she got up, person. More content to lay in bed, enjoying the quiet of the morning till her alarm actually went off and she was forced to get up. 

But Amity gets to school early, so Luz does too, of course.

Any extra time spent with her paramour Is enough to get her moving, even at the crack of dawn.

The air is cool and crisp with the onset of fall. The trees have begun to change color, though to her it's strange to see because the foliage in the Isles is already such varying shades aside from the green she's used to, the only way she can really tell is because the ones she sees every day outside the owl house or on the way to school have begun to change hue and flake off the branches. Greens are turning red and brown while the reds wilt into bright yellows. The woods are a rainbow of hues; she likes it. 

Even if it is a constant reminder.

She takes a deep breath of the cool air and grins as she jogs towards the school, some fallen leaves crunching under her steps. 

As she runs up the path to Hexside she quickly spots her girlfriend's head of mint green hair near the steps, she grins and makes a beeline straight for her.

She’s talking to Gus and Willow who are apparently also early today.

"Hey, guys!" She smiles brightly as she comes to a skidding halt in front of them.

Hey, Luz." Gus and Willow grin and wave.

"Buenos dìas, mi amor." She nudges Amity with her hip, who pinks a little but smiles at her tenderly. She's spent enough time with Luz over the last month and a half to have started picking up some Spanish and it's only when Luz starts her rapid, spitfire rambling in the language that she gets hopelessly lost, but she’s trying. She wants to learn, for Luz and for herself. She’d like to be able to say whatever she wants to her without fear of people overhearing things they shouldn’t.

It’s slow work, but Luz is all too happy to help her learn, even when she giggles at the stilted, choppy way Amity says things. Rolling her 'R's is another thing she's having difficulty with.

She may have also managed to get a hold of a handy little Spanish to English dictionary, courtesy of Eda, from her pile of human trash. She’s been studying it in her spare time, hoping to surprise her girlfriend with things she hasn’t yet taught her. 

"Morning…” She hesitates, hoping she’s not going to butcher this, “querida."

Luz chokes on her own spit as her face turns red and Amity feels rather proud of herself, having brought her chatty girlfriend to stupefied silence.

“What’s going on?” Gus whispers to Willow who just smiles.

They’ve become pretty accustomed to Luz and Amity’s somewhat new dynamic since they started dating and all the strange, sometimes hard to follow conversations the two have. Though without any context Willow thinks she knows what’s going on. 

She’s also picked up a little of Luz’s other language, and while she doesn’t know ‘amor’ or ‘querida’ the faces the two make tells her all she needs to know about the nature of these words and she rolls her eyes at the couple. 

“They're just being sappy, don’t worry about it.

“Oh…” Gus nods.

“Where did you learn that?” Luz finally sputters, still red-faced, and Amity grins, and maybe it’s a Blight sibling thing, but she winks and Luz feels like she might just melt into a puddle of human goo. She only thought she got flustered whenever one of the twins winked at her, this was a whole nother level entirely. 

“If you two are done…," Willow started, drawing the couples embarrassed gazes. “I heard the Autumn festival is going to be in town this weekend, we should all go.” 

“Yeah!” Luz quickly agreed before stopping. “What’s The Autumn festival?” she asks and Willow laughs while Amity can only roll her eyes fondly.

“It's like a carnival but with autumn-themed food and games and all kinds of fun stuff,” Gus explains, bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet and Luz joins him in excited fidgeting.

“Count me in!” Luz pumps a fist before turning to look at her girlfriend imploringly. Amity’s lips twitch at the large, pleading eyes now turned on her. Luz is the only one with this kind of power over her. Not that she would have turned down the opportunity to spend an afternoon with her and their friends.

“Sounds like fun,” she agreed. 

Luz and Gus cheer, high-fiving while Amity and Willow share a look. 

They talked a little while longer before the bell rang and they all had to make their way to class. 

It was Thursday, and Luz had Bard and Oracle track classes today, so she bid farewell to her friends as she and Amity walked down another hall. Abominations were only one hall down from the bard hall.

When they stopped in front of the entrance to the bard's hall Amity grabbed her arm.

“I won’t be able to meet you today, my mom wants me to come straight home after school.” She frowned and Luz resisted the urge to pout, she knew Amity didn’t like it anymore then she did so she simply nodded.

“It’s okay, I’ll see you tomorrow and I’ll message you tonight.” She smiled and Amity’s frown vanished in the face of it. She wanted very badly to close the short distance between them and lay a quick kiss on her mouth but there were students all around them, though none close enough to hear them. 

“I'll be waiting for it, querida.” she grinned as she walked away from her again short-circuiting girlfriend. 

~ ~ ~

Luz was worried

She’d waited until sometime after dinner before sending Amity a message on her scroll as she laid in bed. Usually, Amity replied within a few minutes.

She’d waited a few hours, checking her scroll periodically, eventually feeling antsy and moving about the house.

Eda and Lilith seemed to pick up on her behavior pretty quickly as she wandered around the kitchen and living room, frowning.

“Is something the matter, Luz?” Lilith was the first to ask. 

“Hmm, Amity hasn’t messaged me back yet and it’s been four hours…,” she mumbled, plopping down on the floor, opposite the couch where the sisters were sitting.’

“That’s it? Your girlfriend hasn’t messaged you back yet?” Eda cocked a brow. “You were wandering around here looking like someone was being murdered.” She crossed her arms.

“You don’t understand, Eda!” She threw up her hands. “She’s never not responded to me before… and her mom wanted her to come home right after school today... I’m worried.” She glanced down at her still silent scroll. 

The women shared a look before turning back to Luz.

“I’m sure it’s gonna be okay, kid. If her mom wanted her home it must have been for something, she’s just busy.” Eda tried to comfort her apprentice.

“Surely if something were wrong she would have messaged you first," Lilith followed up. 

“Yeah, kids head over heels for you. If she needed you, she’d let you know.”

“Hmm, I guess…,” Luz grumbled. 

Eda frowned at the glum look on her kid's face and stood. 

“Come on Luz, let’s go get ice screams,” she said, ruffling the girl's head as she walked over to the door.

A tiny smile pulled at her lips at what she knew Eda was trying to do. They were probably right, Amity had a tighter schedule than most adults she knew, she was probably just busy. 

“Okay” She hopped up to join Eda at the door.

“King, let’s go, we're getting Ice screams!” she yelled, and upstairs a loud squeal of excitement echoed back. “You too, Lilly.” Eda jerked her head.

“Very well.” 

~ ~ ~ 

Luz was very worried now as she walked quickly to school.

Amity had never returned her message and according to the little text next to it, she had never even read it.

That was not like her and it made Luz’s stomach tight with worry. 

She shot right out of the house as soon as she had gotten dressed when she’d checked her scroll to still see no sign of Amity. 

Students were milling about the front of the building. If she wanted to avoid people Amity would get to school just before the bell rang so she could use it as an excuse. She’s done it a couple of times since they started dating, though never to Luz. 

Just as she predicted, she could see her girlfriends bright green head as she walked toward Hexside’s main steps. 

“Amity!” 

She froze stiff at the call, but she didn’t look like she was going to try and run.

“Hey! I was worried about you, you never messaged me back last night.” She stopped at Amity’s side so their conversation was hushed as kids walked by them. 

“Sorry, Luz… I got busy last night, I didn’t mean to worry you…” She turned to look at her with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. 

Luz noticed it immediately. 

Amity’s hair was a bright new shade of mint and the auburn roots Luz adored were gone, now the same shade as the rest of her hair.

“Your hair…,” Luz mumbled and Amity clutched her books tighter to her chest. She knew Luz would notice right away. She didn’t know why she thought she could avoid this. 

Luz pursed her lips as she looked at the uniform color and remembered what Amity had told her about it. She’d held her tongue before about the subject, but this clearly caused her girlfriend distress if the way her hunched shoulders and the way she couldn’t meet Luz’s eyes meant anything.

“Did your mom make you re-dye your hair last night?” She knew she hit the nail on the head because as soon as the sentence left her mouth Amity flinched, hunkering in even further.

“Yes,” she answered after a long moment, just as the bell rang. “I gotta go.” She tried to walk away but Luz grabbed her shoulder. 

“Amity, wait…”

“I really don’t want to talk about this right now, Luz.” She pulled away and ran inside leaving Luz to watch her go from the bottom of the steps with a frown.

Her stomach was churning with worry for Amity and anger at her girlfriend's mother. She’d never met Mrs. Blight, but she knew already without a doubt, she didn’t like her. 

~ ~ ~

Amity could hardly pay attention to her classes. She was mad at herself.

She knew eventually her roots were going to reach a point where her mother was going to ‘suggest’ that she fix it. She knew by the length that the time was approaching and she should have told Luz about it, knowing that she would notice right away and that she knew her and her mother’s… secret agreement, if that was what she wanted to call it. Amity sniffed at that.

Even Ed and Em didn’t know why she colored her hair, they’d teased her mercilessly about it after the first time, saying that if she wanted to be like them she’d have to try harder then that.

Hell, she wasn’t sure her father even knew. Having inherited her warm auburn hair from him, he’d seemed a little disappointed after the first time her mother had ‘asked’ her to color it, in that cloying sweet way that meant she wasn’t really asking. 

She sighed to herself, she hadn’t meant to ignore Luz last night, but having her hair recolored had put her in a very bad mood and she didn’t think she’d have been good company. 

Then this morning… she groaned quietly. 

Of course, Luz would be able to put two and two together and see that she was upset. She always was the first couple of days after having her hair fixed. She really shouldn’t have blown her off though. She would send her a message later, apologizing. 

There wasn’t much she could do about her hair. She wished she could just let it be the color it was; It frustrated her.

When class mercifully ended she took her time gathering her things. She knew in the back of her mind it was just to avoid Luz, even though she really wanted to see her.

After last night she just wanted to let her girlfriend hold her. She was always happiest and at peace whenever the human wrapped her arms around her and let her just bury her face into her neck.

But Luz also asked too many questions and felt righteous, indignant anger for others much too strong to simply ignore this, it was one of the things Amity loved about her. She cared so much, but this was something beyond her, and Amity needed to find a way to explain it to her so she would let it go. 

Luz thought the emperor was tough? She’d never met Odalia Blight and if Amity had her way, she never would.

She was walking down the quiet empty halls tiredly when a classroom door swung open and someone grabbed her pulling her inside. She didn’t even have time to cry out as the door shut and she was standing in the middle of an empty classroom. 

“It’s just me!” Luz quickly soothed her panic.

“Luz!” Amity hissed. “What are you doing?” She held a hand to her chest over her rapidly beating heart. 

“Sorry, I was waiting for you.” 

“You could have just waited outside for me…,” Amity grumbled.

“So you could take off running the second you saw me?” Luz frowned, not glaring but it was a very stern look that made Amity frown guiltily. 

“I’m sorry…,” she mumbled.

“Don’t be sorry, just talk to me, Amity” Luz pleaded. “I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me, amor”

“You can’t help with this, Luz.” she shook her head, looking at the floor. “This is just… something I have to do… I know you want to help but you can't. So please, can you just forget about it?” 

“No!” Luz flings out her arms. “How can I just ignore it when it makes you like this?!” Luz can’t understand why Amity just can’t talk to her about this. 

Maybe she can’t do anything, but she’s there for Amity to lean on when she needs her, when she's hurting, even when they can’t do anything about it. 

She doesn’t have to shove it all down and pretend she's not bothered when she clearly is.

Frustration is bubbling up in Amity’s stomach like a boiling cauldron. Why can’t Luz understand that this is just something she has to do?

“It’s just hair, Luz!” She’s not shouting but it's much louder than it needs to be.

“If it was just about hair then you wouldn’t be so upset and miserable about it!” Luz’s tone also raises. "You wouldn't be hiding from me!"

"It doesn’t matter, I have to do this, you don’t know what my mother is like!” she is yelling now.

"I would if you would just explain it to me!" She shouts back, just as loud.

Amity turns away from her, shaking. She hates this, hates how angry she is, hates her mother, and that Luz can’t just let this go. Just this once, she wished she didn’t care so much. 

Luz frowns. This wasn't at all how she had wanted this to go. She takes a breath, calming herself.

"Hey, it's okay… maybe I don't get it..." Luz starts quietly and reaches out a hand towards Amity's shaking shoulder. "But my mom…" 

Amity is just so frustrated by everything she spins around to face her surprised girlfriend and snaps:

“Stop, your right, you don’t get it and your mom isn’t here!"

Brown eyes go wide and the hurt couldn't be clearer.

Just like that, all her frustration drains out of her and she wants nothing more than to take the words back, pull them back and swallow the vile things before they leave her mouth, but she can't. They're out there now and she has to live with that. 

Live with the deafening silence that fills the empty classroom as she and Luz stare back at each other with wide eyes, gold filled with horror and brown with shock and hurt

Her stomach drops into her feet as Luz's lips begin to tremble and her eyes turn glassy. 

She wants to say something, anything, but for the life of her, she can't get her mouth to form the words.

Luz bursts, choking on a sob before she turns and runs, wrenching the door open. It slams against the wall, the bang echoing through the room as she flees down the hall. 

"Luz!" Amity calls finally able to make her body respond and she runs after her, but Luz is fast, much faster then Amity realized as she bursts out of the schools front doors in time to see the other girl vanishing into the woods at the edge of the school grounds, she stops at the bottom of the steps, helplessly watching her girlfriend disappear from sight amid the trees.

"Amity!?" She looks to see Gus and Willow, standing at the edge of the steps looking at her with concerned faces. No doubt they had seen Luz run by sobbing.

"What happened!?" Willow asks.

"What did you do!?" Gus accuses, pointing a finger at her and glaring.

'I…" she stammers, then bites her lip and after a long minute trying to form coherent thoughts, she slowly explains what happened. The two friends' faces change from shock to outrage and alarm by the time she's done.

"Why would you say that?!" Willow is all but shouting at her as Gus crosses his arms and glares as if she didn't already feel bad about what she'd said to Luz.

"I don't know!" she wails. "It was stupid and cruel and I don't know! I didn't mean to, I was just frustrated, she wouldn't drop it and it just came out…" She buried her face in her hands miserably.

Willow is pinching the bridge of her nose beneath her glasses. She knows what she's about to say is going to make Amity feel so much worse, but it needs to be said. 

"You don't know how cruel…," she starts and Amity is looking at her with worried eyes at the miserable tone of her voice. "Summer is over Amity, Luz was supposed to go home almost two weeks ago…," she trails off and Amity's mind shifts gears, spinning into overdrive as she takes in the meaning of those words, understanding slapping her in the face.

"Oh… oh, Titan, no!" She covers her mouth with her hands but the horror In her eyes is clear. In the midst of the cloudy haze of their blossoming relationship, Amity had lost track of the days.

Somewhere in the human world, a mother is desperately searching for her missing daughter and Luz knows this, Amity, Willow, and Gus know this, and Amity had only, no matter how unintentionally, dug the knife in deeper.

Her knees are on the verge of giving out and she drops on the bottom step before they can buckle of their own accord.

"Why am I so terrible!" Amity shouts, reaching up to pull at her hair, shame is the only thing she can feel and it makes bile threaten to rise up her throat; she thinks she's about to be sick as water pools in the corners of her eyes. 

Willow sighs and kneels down on the ground in front of her, thinking about what to say. 

"You're not terrible, Amity," she said slowly. "I know you didn't mean it and I'm sure Luz knows it to…"

"I hurt her…" Amity whimpers, and she's never been so disappointed in herself as she is at this moment, knowing that she's hurt the one person she cares about more than anything.

Willow and Gus share a look before turning back to the girl cracking too pieces in front of them.

"You can still fix this, Amity." Willow reaches up and lays a comforting hand on the trembling girl's shoulder. "You need to talk to her, now." Willow impresses the urgency upon her.

She nods, wiping away the tears that are threatening to fall and she stands.

"I gotta go…" she takes off toward the owl house without another word.

When she's finally standing in front of the house she's panting, having run all the way. 

She takes a moment to get her breath back before walking up to knock on the door. Hooty is strangely quiet as he looks at her from his place in the door.

After a moment it opens and the owl lady is standing there looking at her with a frown. 

"Is Luz here? she asks, trying not to cower as Eda looks down at her.

Eda simply regards her for another few seconds before saying anything.

"Yeah, ran through here crying. Your doing, I take it?" It's not really a question.

"Can I talk to her…, please?" She'll beg if she has to. She has to make this right.

Eda continues to stare at her for the longest few seconds of Amity's life before she steps aside and Amity shoots through the door and up the stairs, not even acknowledging King or Lilith sitting on the couch.

Luz's door is closed but she can hear her quiet muffled crying through the door and it tears at her heart. She lifts her hand to knock but hesitates, and swallows, but her mouth is dry. 

Finally, she taps on the door and the cries quiet.

"Not now, Eda…" her voice is quiet and it cracks. Amity takes hold of the handle, gripping it tightly before pushing it open.

It's dim in the room, stray beams of light are streaming through the drawn curtains, just enough that she can see.

Luz is curled up on her bed, facing away from her.

She must have heard the door open.

"I just wanna be alone, Eda," she choked quietly.

Amity licks her dry lips.

"Luz"

The girl goes still before her cries pick up again, though she's trying to muffle them.

Amity's feet are heavy as she walks across the room, but hesitates at the bedside, not sure what to do with herself.

Finally, she settles for kneeling on the floor, so her face is level with Luz, hands holding onto the edge of the mattress. The old, worn wood bites into her knees but she ignores it.

"Luz…, I am so sorry," she finally says. "I didn't mean to say that… or to yell at you… I was just frustrated and I know that's no excuse for it, I just…" she chokes back her own tears. "I'm sorry, I'm just so sorry." It's all she can say as she stares at her girlfriend's quaking back, tears dripping down her cheeks. Her head drops and she clenches her eyes shut as more tears fall, dripping off her chin to the floor, leaving little wet circles in the dry wood.

She stays right there for several long minutes before the bed shifts and she looks up.

Luz has rolled over to face her, staring back at her with wet, red-rimmed eyes. 

She's still crying as she holds up an arm and Amity stares back at her with wide eyes.

"C'mere," she croaks and Amity scrambles into the bed, wedging one of her arms between Luz and the mattress to squeeze her close, burying her face into her chest.

Luz's grip on her is just as tight as she nuzzles her face into bright green hair. 

They just lay there for a while as their tears slow, eyes closed

They don't hear the Clawthorne sisters outside the door.

"Edalyn!" Lilith hisses as she follows her sister down the hall to Luz's room. "Do you honestly think they're in there making out again?!" She asks with quiet outrage.

"After last week I'm just checking!" she hisses back. "They know the rules, door open!" she says quietly.

Lilith rolls her eyes, scowling. "Luz was in tears!" 

"I know. Do you know how many crying people I've 'comforted'?" The younger finger quotes and Lilith's scowl only intensifies; for multiple reasons.

"Do you really think so lowly of Amity?" she growls.

"No, of course not, but I need to check on my kid!" Eda growls, looking at Lilith over her shoulder. The elder only frowns but says nothing else.

She's silent when she turns the door handle and opens it just a couple of inches to peek inside. the first thing she sees of course is the two teenagers curled up together on the bed, and she's just about to throw the door open when she hears it. 

Crying. 

Both of them are huddled together on the bed crying.

She closes the door as silently as she opened it and backs away.

"Well?" Lilith asks lowly and Eda just shakes her head.

"Leave 'em be," she says as they walk back down the hall.

When the crying has stopped the two are just laying there quietly, absorbing each other's warmth, still sniffling on occasion as Luz runs her fingers through Amity's hair while the other clenches and unclenches her hands in the fabric of Luz's shirt.

Finally, Amity finds the will to speak.

"I lost track of the days…," she starts quietly. "I completely forgot when you were supposed to go back…" 

Luz hums.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Amity finally finds the courage to ask.

Luz just shrugs, frowning into Amity's hair.

"I didn't want anyone to worry about me. I especially didn't want you to worry about me. Worrying about it isn't going to fix it…," she trails off. 

Amity makes a frustrated sound in her throat and pulls back just enough so they can look at each other. Both their eyes are red and puffy.

"That's not how this works, Luz! I'm going to worry about you whether you want me to or not, that's how love works!" She's more than aware of the hypocrisy of her words as they come out of her mouth, but more so as those deep brown eyes lock with hers, but she goes on. "I want to be there for you, even if I can't do anything, I want you to be able to lean on me."

"Then why won't you let me be there for you?" she shoots back and Amity flinches. The words hold no anger, just sad confusion. 

"I…," Amity sighs. She's been thinking about this too and has finally come to the answer. "I don't know how…" her voice is so soft Luz barely hears it. "I'm a Blight… I'm not supposed to need anyone. I should be strong enough on my own." She closes her eyes, unable to stare into Luz's any longer, she can't bear whatever she might find there. 

"That's stupid."

Her eyes shoot open to look at Luz, who is frowning. She looks angry but Amity realizes it's not directed at her as she presses her forehead against hers.

"Everyone needs help sometimes, no matter what their name is, and… we're supposed to be there to help each other, no matter what, that's what this is." Her grip on Amity tightens. "Like you said, that's what love is. Us against the world, but you have to let me, Amity." Her voice is thick with raw emotion.

Luz is getting blurry as tears fill Amity's eyes again and her fingers dig into Luz's shirt in a death grip. Luz is smiling at her sadly as they begin to drip down her cheeks to the bed. She nods shakily. 

"I know…," she hiccups. 

"You said I don't understand. So explain it to me," she breathes, and Amity sniffles. "Please, mi amor. Tell me." Luz whispers.

So she does.

They lay there a long time, so long, the sunlight in the room disappears, casting the room in darkness as Amity explains exactly what it's like growing up in Blight Manor, with parents that are too busy most of the time to even remember they have children unless it's convenient to them. With a distant father who is usually too busy to spend time with his family or know what is going on and a mother who when she has the time, uses it to try and sculpt all her children into perfectly painted figurines for her to display to their friends and acquaintances at parties.

Nevermind that the paint just hides the many chips and cracks beneath.

Luz only holds her all the tighter the longer they lay there and her heart aches the more Amity speaks as she realizes that Willow and green hair dye are only the tip of an iceberg lodged in her girlfriend's heart.

"Oh, Amity," Luz breathes, holding her as tight as she can without crushing her. "I'm sorry," she finally says when Amity is finished. "I should have left it alone…"

Amity shakes her head

"No…, I should have talked to you about this instead of just trying to ignore it," she sighs "I know you, Luz. I know how much you care and want to help… I love that about you… I guess part of me just didn't want you to know what a mess I am," she mumbles, gold eyes sliding to look anywhere but Luz. She squeaks as Luz's grip on her becomes crushing.

"You're not!" she growls, anger burns in her belly like she's swallowed fire. She's never felt such intense hatred before as she feels at Amity's mom right now. "You're amazing and I love you so much." She squeezes harder still. "And what your parents do isn't your fault," she asserts.

"Luz, too tight…," Amity squeaks.

"Sorry, sorry!" Luz smiles sheepishly and relaxes her death grip on Amity, who can finally take a full breath. "Really, though. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed. When you tell me to leave something alone I need to listen…," she says with a frown, which makes Amity frown.

She draws her hands back from around Luz's back and wedges them between them to wrap her fingers around her neck, thumbs brushing her cheeks.

"And I need to learn that I can rely on you, no matter what," she says and Luz smiles, making her own lips pull up.

"Always, mi amor." she affirms, leaning into Amity's touch.

Amity closes the incrementally small distance between the two to press a soft kiss to her girlfriend's smiling mouth. 

When she releases her she sighs happily but exhausted.

"We've been here a long time… you probably need to get home." Luz frowns, not at all happy about having to send Amity home now that she knows exactly what that home is like.

The twins can only help so much, they too are just teenagers in the same boat as their sister, even though it seems to Luz that shielding Amity from as much as they can is their priority; for which she could never be more grateful.

Thankfully Amity just shakes her head.

"They left for the weekend this morning… it's just Ed and Em at home," she says.

"Then stay," Luz says without even having to think about it. 

Amity jerks up to look at her, eyes blown wide and cheeks pinking.

"I… don't think Eda will be okay with that after what happened last week" the pink turns red.

"She will if I explain It to her…," she says. Amity looks unsure of that. "We need adults in our corner, even if they're both wanted criminals." She grins and Amity can't help but giggle at her. Even when it's dark, Luz has a way of lighting up her world.

"Okay" she moves to sit up but Luz pushes her back down with a hand on her shoulder.

"You stay here, I can do it, amor," Luz assures her. Amity wants to argue, but she feels drained after explaining it all to Luz, so she just nods.

Luz pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth and crawls off the bed, moving to the door.

Amity bites her lip before calling out.

"Hurry back, querida."

Luz freezes and Amity grins, knowing even without being able to see her face as it's turned away and dark that Luz is blushing.

After a second she just looks over her shoulder and smiles.

"Siempre volveré a ti, mi amor." She says before opening the door and disappearing down the hall, leaving Amity confused but flustered.

She pulls out her scroll and calls her sister who picks up on the second ring.

"Mittens, are you okay, where are you?" She sounds worried and Amity feels a little guilty about that.

"I'm fine, Em. I'm at Luz's…" 

"Oooh, and what are you two up to I wonder…?" she says with a knowing lilt, but she does not have the energy to be angry at her older sisters teasing.

"Emira…" the tired and almost sad way she says her sister's name makes the sound on the other end go quiet for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Emira sounds serious now, and with a weary sigh she explains the last few hours to the twins after Emira has put her scroll on speaker, which includes finally telling the twins why she's been dying her hair green for years; they don't like it. Not one bit.

After about twenty minutes Luz peeks her head in the bedroom door and seeing her on her scroll, gives her a thumbs-up as she walks quietly into the room to sit on the end of the bed.

"Titan, Amity…" she hears her brother say quietly. 

"I'm going to stay with Luz tonight, I'll be back in the morning and we can talk about it later," she says before he or Emira can say anything else.

There's a long moment of silence and Amity can just see the two of them, looking at each other having one of the silent conversations they're famous for.

"Alright, we'll see you tomorrow. We love you!" The two chorus at the end and Amity rolls here eyes, but smiles.

"I love you too." The scroll beeps as the call ends and Luz reaches out to grab her hand and squeezes reassuringly.

"Eda said we're good to go for tonight and that dinner is ready." 

It isn't until she says this that Amity realizes how absolutely starving she is.

"That sounds nice." She nods.

Luz grins and leads her downstairs, hand still threaded through hers.

Eda looks up as they walk into the kitchen. 

"Have a seat, kids." She motions to the table where Lilith and King are already sitting, waiting.

They do, and they all smile, and for once Amity is glad that Lilith is here.

Maybe she hasn't forgiven her yet, but she's trying, and after all this talk about her mother, she's glad for anyone else.

She gives Lilith a small smile and the woman seems surprised, but it's quickly replaced with a reassuring look.

When dinner finished and everything is cleaned up, Amity insists on helping, the two head for the stairs only to be stopped by Eda, poking her head out of the kitchen to look at the two as they start up the stairs.

"Luz" her mentor calls, and they both turn back to look at her.

"You two can sleep up there, but that door stays open, no funny business, or this is the last time anyone stays here; got it?" They both turn bright red but Luz nods.

"No funny business," she squeaks. she's not going to even attempt to argue that nothing is going to happen, she just agrees; not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Good. Night, kids." Eda grins and the two hurry up the stairs, mumbling to each other and faces red.


	2. Chapter 2

Saturday afternoon Amity sat sipping tea in the Redstone bakery, waiting.

Luz was late, but there was usually a good excuse for it.

Usually, it had to do with King or Eda and an explosion, or something coming to life and trying to eat them, which happened far too frequently at the owl house. They had been pretty rambunctious when she’d left that morning after breakfast. King was scurrying into the cabinets, looking for food. 

She sat in the far back table by the windows, the same spot the two usually sat in when they visited the shop, which had become quite frequent over the last month and a half they had been dating. It was quiet, out of the way and no one they knew from school ever came here, so aside from being in their secret room or just out in the woods of the Isles, it made it the perfect place for them to be together without any onlookers.

They could go to the owl house, but not if they wanted any real privacy. The place was a madhouse on the best of days with Hooty and King liable to burst in at any moment, and ever since last week, they either had to stay in the living room or leave the door all the way open. She sank down in her chair just thinking about it.

It had started innocently enough, Amity had been laying on her stomach across Luz’s new bed teasing her for her latest malformed abomination summons.

~

_“It’s not supposed to have that many arms…,” Amity snickered as she watched Luz’s abomination flail about with four too many limbs and one-third the size it should have been._

_Funny as it was, it was still impressive considering that Luz wasn’t supposed to be able to do magic at all; so she would give her that._

_Luz grumbled as she scrunched up the glyph paper, canceling out the spell and her abomination fizzled into a small puddle on the floor. She glanced at her book, from her place, sitting cross-legged on the floor next to the bed, frowning and her brows furrowed between her eyes as she carefully read over the theory behind abomination summoning. Amity watched her with a small smile. The little divots between her brows and the way her mouth screwed up in concentration were cute._

_Another failed abomination attempt later she was grumbling to herself and Amity laughed out loud at this one, it was merely a blob on the floor that blinked up at them pitifully._

_“Ugh! Why is this so hard?” Luz slapped her hands to her cheeks, frustrated._

_“It takes a lot of practice, the fact that you can do it at all is impressive,” Amity soothed, reaching out to run her fingers through the soft, thick brown locks of hair. Luz just grumbled but leaned toward the touch. Amity smirked “Maybe instead of using it to attack something you can just throw this one at them as a distraction?” she couldn't help laughing._

_Luz frowned, side-eyeing her girlfriend._

_“Very funny." she reached up and poked Amity in the side making her jerk back with a little yelp that made Luz blink, worried that maybe she had hurt her. Amity stared at her with wide, surprised eyes that definitely weren't from pain._

_Slowly a devilish grin broke out on Luz’s face as she turned toward her._

_“Are you… ticklish, mi amor?”_

_“No,” was the resolute answer but already her muscles were tensing up as Luz rose to her knees, grin still firmly in place._

_“Oh~?” She leaned forward, hands on the bed and Amity leaned back as far as her position laying on her stomach would allow._

_“Luz…,” she said in a warning tone, glaring at her girlfriend and her diabolical expression._

_“Hmmm?” Luz just grinned wider._

_“Don’t…,” she started but not soon enough as Luz pounced._

_Amity squealed with laughter, as Luz’s fingers dug into her sides, pressing into all the sensitive areas of her ribs. She rolled over onto her back trying to escape but Luz scrambled after her, pinning her beneath her as she straddled her waist and mercilessly running her fingers across her sides and stomach._

_“Ss-stop!” Amity choked on her uncontrollable laughter as Luz giggled right along with her, but didn’t relent as Amity squirmed beneath her trying to grab her hands but her spasming sapped all her strength. She couldn’t concentrate long enough to even think to draw a spell circle to throw Luz off or grab her wrists._

_“Luz!” only when she finally managed to squeal, breathless, did Luz finally stop, hands dropping to either side of her head on the bed to hold herself up over Amity, still giggling down at her and wearing a bright smile as the witch gasped for breath, chest heaving and face flushed._

_She wanted to be annoyed with Luz and her stupidly, blinding, giddy smile, but she could only grin back as she tried to get her breathing back under control. At some point in the struggle her hair tie had worked itself free too._

_It was then that the look on Luz’s face changed._

_The grin fell away as she gazed down at her girlfriend in silent, open wonder._

_Bright, green hair was splayed out around her head in sharp contrast to her still flushed skin and the happy little smile on her face as she worked to slow her breathing, looking up at Luz with half-lidded gold eyes, still glazed over from crying with laughter._

_Luz swallowed thickly. The mood in the room shifted._

_Amity was so beautiful..._

_Without thinking Luz leaned down, capturing Amity’s mouth in a searing kiss, muffling her surprised noises._

_Amity was shocked at the sudden kiss, but it didn’t last long as she reached up to dig her fingers in Luz’s hair._

_Luz tilted her head, deepening the kiss, and a flash of heat jolted through her, searing, like nothing she’d ever felt before, nothing like the handful of kisses they’d shared before._

_The sound that comes out of her throat is not a moan, most certainly not._

_Luz jerks back at the noise though to look at her, and they're both bright red and heaving for breath._

_Amity wants to say something, anything to explain away the sound._

_Titan, she’s embarrassed!_

_She’s unaware that Luz’s thoughts are on an entirely different page, in a whole different book._

_She wants to make her make that sound again._

_Just as Amity’s lips part to say something Luz is kissing her again, and this one is very different than the impromptu one from before; this one has purpose._

_Amity’s mind is a static mess of jumbled, half-thoughts as she reaches up to clench the back of Luz’s shirt in her hands, unconsciously pulling her closer. One thought immediately jumps out to her._

_'Is that her tongue!?'_

_Luz succeeds in her mission to elicit the sound from her girlfriend again, but of course, the second she does, the door flings open._

_“Hey, you two wan-”_

_Amity shrieks, practically flinging Luz off her and over the side of the bed with a loud crash and thump as Eda stands in the doorway, wide-eyed and mouth hanging open mid-sentence. Luz scampers back to standing, hardly fazed from being tossed to the ground._

_Amity wants to die._

_“Ooohh, hey, Eda… uhhh…. sup?” Luz asks with a nervous squeak and a finger gun._

_Eda looks at them both, faces blood red and neither one of them can look her in the eye. She crosses her arms, looking unamused._

~

She had wanted to die right there, she had prayed to the Titan that the floor would just open up and swallow her.

She could still hear Eda’s annoyed voice.

"Nope, you want to suck face, do it somewhere else, where I can't see." 

She left soon after, too embarrassed to look at the owl lady another second.

Then of course she'd had to walk past a smirking Lilith on the couch when she left soon after.

Not her finest moment.

Luz had messaged her later that night, saying that Eda had sat her down on the couch and laid out some new ground rules for her whenever the two were at the owl house, which basically boiled down to: 'do whatever you want, cause I know it's gonna happen anyway, just don't do it here where I can see it.' 

That, and all doors had to be kept open at all times if the two were in the same room together.

Amity thought that was… quite lenient but then again, Eda had a very practical, straightforward approach to life.

She grumbled to herself, face pinking at the memory. Every time she'd gone to the owl house since Eda had been giving her these knowing looks whenever the two went upstairs and would sometimes send King to check on them.

But Amity only needed one lesson to learn. She was just thankful it was Eda and not her brother or sister that had caught them. Or Titan forbid, her own parents; she really would have died. 

Luckily she had managed to get out of the house this morning without Eda or Lilith giving them any looks, probably only because Luz had explained everything that had happened yesterday, including her… family’s dynamic.

She felt so vulnerable and meek last night, laying out everything she had always kept to herself about her home life and her family to Luz. Somewhere in the back of her mind she’d been tense, just waiting for Luz to turn her away, belittle her problems, something, no matter how consciously she knew Luz would never, and she didn't. She'd just held her comfortingly and listened, and for once, Amity didn't feel judged at all; she felt seen and heard.

When she’d gone to sleep last night with Luz’s arms wrapped around her waist and whispering quiet words of comfort and love into her ear, it had felt like a blast of icy wind on her burning, raw emotions; she felt loved.

Honestly, she wouldn’t mind if that was the case for the rest of her life. A thought that made her skin prickle with pleasant sensations. 

She smiled to herself before taking a long drink of her tea.

"Hõla, mi amor," was whispered in her ear, hot breath ghosting over the tip and making shivers run the length of her spine.

She choked on the liquid in her mouth, coughing and sputtering. A hand slapped her back, helping to dislodge the liquid and she sucked in a ragged breath.

"Don't do that!" Amity gasped, red-faced as her girlfriend finally appeared at her side, grimacing.

"Sorry, Amity," she said apologetically, rubbing her back. "You okay?" she asked, sliding onto the seat across from her.

"Fine, I'm fine…," she said, finally getting her breathing back under control. "What took you?"

"King got his head stuck in a peanut butter jar." Luz shrugged, chuckling and Amity rolled her eyes. 

"Of course. Well, Gus and Willow aren't here yet either." 

"Cool, I'm so excited." She was practically vibrating in her seat and Amity smiled. “What’s the autumn festival like?” 

“It will probably just be easier to take you there and show you,” Amity said as she took another drink, all of it going down the correct pipes this time. 

The human huffed, leaning her elbows on the table. Amity just smiled into her cup and Luz watched her quietly. The early afternoon sunlight is shining directly through the window onto their table and she watches it shine off golden irises and mint green strands of hair. She idly wonders at how pretty she would look with sunlight bouncing off the naturally warm auburn hair hidden beneath the cool tones and feels herself frowning.

She'd really liked Amity's hair when they first met, even if the girl herself hadn't given off the best impression, almost letting her get dissected and all that, though to be fair, she'd also been helping Willow cheat her out of her rightfully earned spot at the top of the class, and Luz knew how her girlfriend felt about school and her grades, something else she heavily suspected had to do with her parents, but now that she knew why Amity dyed it, and how she felt about it, it left a bitter taste in her mouth. 

If Amity liked it, it would be another story altogether, but it bothered her and thus, it bothered Luz.

She drummed her fingers on the table, staring at the color. Her brows furrowed tightly between her eyes as she stared at the offending color; it made her angry. She couldn't imagine how Amity felt every time she saw herself in the mirror; a thought that was quickly souring her mood.

Amity glanced up from her cup to see her girlfriend glaring at her and blinked. No, Luz wasn't looking at her, but her hair, and as much as she usually hated people staring at it, usually after re-dying it, she could see the gears turning in Luz's head. She sat the cup down gently.

"Luz," she called, drawing her out of her thoughts.

Luz blinked, eyes shooting down to lock with Amity's

"Hmm?" 

"It's okay…" She paused, hesitating. "Well, it's not," she finally admits to herself and aloud for the first time. "But it's okay." 

Luz pursed her lips but nodded, keeping her mouth closed. Maybe she wasn't always the quickest study, but she'd learned yesterday's lesson quickly. Amity knew she was there if she needed her, and if she said it was okay, Luz needed to respect that. 

If Amity isn't going to be worked up about, neither will she. 

She's going to try anyway. 

“Did you talk to Ed an Em?” she asks after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

“Yeah… we had a long talk this morning after I got home." A small smile works its way onto her lips and Luz feels herself mirroring it back unconsciously. "They were really mad… and ashamed, I guess?" She went on.

"Ashamed?" Luz cocked her head as Amity nodded.

"After the first time I had to color my hair, they teased me a lot, they thought I was trying to be more like them." She shrugged. "I had to talk them down from dying their hair brown.” She grinned and Luz snorted. That she would have loved to see. All three Blight siblings with auburn hair. Actually, she may not be able to handle that...

“Ed and Em love you a lot,” she says and Amity blinks, looking at her almost in surprise before nodding, a smile working its way onto her face.

“Yeah… I know they do, I’m not sure what I would do without them,” she admits.

Luz smiles, happy that Amity has the twins to always back her up in her family. 

It makes her think of her mom and she frowns. She'd been bottling up all those thoughts for the last, almost two weeks, since that day she woke up and her phone showed her calendar had an event for the day.

'Going Home!' 

She'd laid there in bed for a long while, staring at the big, bold text glaring back at her from the screen until Eda had peeked her head inside to ask her if she was going to school that day or if she wanted to come with her and pick some pockets at the market.

She jerked, coming back to herself as Amity laid her smaller hand over hers and gave a reassuring squeeze.

Amity knew that look. She was thinking hard about something, something else this time. Her face was drawn up in a quiet melancholy she had seen reflected back at herself enough times to know.

"You okay?" she asked. Luz nodded

“Yeah, just thinking…," she said, turning her hand over to hold hers and squeezed back.

“Anything you want to talk about?” Amity didn’t like the pensive look that had been on her face and after last night she knows that there are still things for them to talk about; like her mom and not even mentioning when her departure date had come and gone to anyone. They'd ended up getting wrapped up in her family drama and that had been enough for one night.

Luz inhaled deeply before sighing. If last night had taught her anything it was that they needed to communicate honestly about their feelings with each other for their relationship to work. 

"Yes," she nodded. "...but not right now." She smiled reassuringly at her girlfriend, who nodded, giving her hand another squeeze.

The bell over the door chimed.

"Hey, Luz, Amity!" 

They both looked up to see Gus and Willow in the doorway, Gus waving enthusiastically at them.

"Hey, guys!" Luz grinned, perking up as they walked over.

"So, everything is okay, I take it?" Willow looked between the two, their hands still entwined on the tabletop.

"Never better." Luz grinned, turning to Amity, who nodded, smiling.

"Great, ready to go then?" Gus asked, grinning excitedly and bouncing in place.

"You bet!" Luz jumped up. 

They left the bakery and quickly headed toward the center of town. Luz could tell they were getting close to the festivities by the ever-growing sounds of shouting and laughter. They turned a corner and Luz grinned.

The street was lined with a variety of booths selling toys, knickknacks, and other things. She could smell something delicious coming from somewhere among the many brightly colored stands.

"Welcome to the Bonesborough autumn festival!" Gus held out an arm, grinning widely. 

"Ooh~" She held her fists to her cheeks and bounced excitedly on her toes. 

Willow and Amity watched the other two hop around and shared a knowing smirk.

"What do we do first?" Luz turned to them with barely restrained glee.

"Well I don't know about you two, but Gus and I haven't had lunch yet. We're going to get something to eat." Willow jerked a thumb in the direction of some booths selling food."

"I could eat," Luz agreed.

"Is there ever a time you could not eat?" Amity asked with a teasing grin. For someone her size, she had learned that Luz had a voracious appetite.

She just grinned and shrugged.

"Food ho, then!" Gus pointed before taking off with Luz hot on his heels, leaving Willow and Amity in their dust.

"So, everything got worked out?" Willow glanced at Amity out of the corner of her eye as they trailed after Gus and Luz as they ran from stand to stand trying to decide what they wanted to eat.

"Yeah… for the most part," she said, making Willow look at her, the unasked question apparent on her face. "Has Luz talked to you about her mom and not being able to go back to the human realm?" Amity asked.

"No, when the day came and went and she didn't say anything, Gus and I figured she had talked about it with you. I didn't realize till yesterday that you'd forgotten." Willow was shaking her head. 

Amity felt a pang of guilt at that. Something so important, and it had just slipped her mind. More worrying though was that it seemed like Luz hadn't talked about it with anyone. 

The worry on her face must have been clear.

"I'm sure she'll talk about it when she's ready," Willow tried to assure her worried friend. "You know her, she's not exactly the best at containing her emotions for long."

As if to punctuate that statement they can hear both Luz and Gus calling them over loudly from a stand with a bright blue sign advertising food on a stick.

"Try this, Luz." Gus hands her something on a stick that looks suspiciously like a deep-fried lizard.

"Welp, when in Rome…," she says and takes a bite, chewing thoughtfully. "Crunchy..." she swallows it and takes another bite. 

"Don't just feed her things, Gus! We never know what she can eat or not." Amity frowned.

"It's fine." Luz waves away her girlfriend's concerns. 

"Do you even know what you're eating?" Willow asks, hands on her hips. Luz looks down at the half-eaten lizard.

"No, but I've learned it's better not to ask and just eat or I'd have starved by now." She shrugs and takes another bite for emphasis.

"Just last week you broke out in a full-body rash after eating bramblewheat bread." Amity crossed her arms and leveled her with a look.

"Does this have bramblewheat?" Luz asked and Gus shook his head. "Then it's fine." 

"If you start throwing up I'm not taking care of you again," Amity says with a huff.

"Yes, you would." Luz sticks her tongue out at her as she walks up to the stand and orders her own food, shooting Luz a look. 

Once they all have their food they wander up and down the many rows of booths looking at the different things for sale. 

Fall is only just now ushering into the Isles, so the day is pleasantly warm and sunny with the occasional chilly wind blowing through to rustle their clothes and hair. They spend a while looking at all the different offerings and wandering around.

They've seen a number of their classmates too, so as much as Luz wants to hold Amity's hand as they walk around, she knows it's not wise. 

Someone like Boscha could be around to see them.

She knows from their adventure in Willow's memories that the only reason she was ever friends with Boscha and Skara was that her parents worked with theirs and made her. If she saw them it could easily make it back to Amity's parents, and that's not something Luz is willing to chance just because she wants to hold her girlfriend's hand at a fair.

That doesn't stop her from walking much closer to her than is strictly necessary though, their shoulders and hands occasionally brushing. Amity knows what she's doing without any words and smiles anytime their fingers touch, twitching them so sometimes hers tangle with Luz's and it makes the human grin. 

Willow spots a stand selling some kind of plants and runs over with Gus behind her, leaving the couple standing on the corner; neither has any interest in the plants.

While they wait Luz looks around and spots a long row of game booths with prizes hanging on their flimsy walls and grins, glancing over at Amity who is picking at her rotten candy. 

"Hey, let's go play the games, I'll win you a prize," she declares.

"You won't win anything at those, Luz." 

"You doubt my skills, amor?" Luz huffs dramatically.

"Depends on which skills we're talking about…," Amity drawls, still grinning as she pulls some threads off the stick and pops them in her mouth. "It has nothing to do with your skills; those games are rigged," she finishes. 

"Pfft, so are the ones in the human realm, but that never stopped me before." She puffs out her chest and hooks a thumb to her chest.

Amity is still smirking as she walks by Luz toward the games, bumping her shoulder with hers and glancing at her out of the corner of her eye.

"Alright then, querida." she smiles coyly. "Win me a prize." 

Luz's brain stalls, the same way it has every time the new term of endearment has so easily rolled off Amity's tongue. When her brain restarts she puffs up and grins back.

Willow and Gus find them twenty minutes later by following the loud sounds of yelling in a familiar, yet unfamiliar tongue.

Luz and Amity are standing in front of a game where you throw a ball at sliding targets.

Amity looks equal parts worried and exasperated as she stands a few feet behind Luz.

"What's going on?" Willow asks her as they walk up. Gus trots over to Luz's side and Amity sighs, rubbing her temples while Luz stands at the counter trying to hit the targets and continually pulling snails out of her pocket to hand over to the grinning man on the other side who takes her money happily.

"She's trying to win me a prize…" Amity drags her hand down her face and looks at Willow tiredly, before her gaze slides to Luz, turning worried, and she has every right to be as more angry Spanish punctuates the air when one of Luz's balls that were headed straight for its intended target, makes a slight, almost unnoticeable change in trajectory; as though by magic...

"¡Maldito, estupido, juego amañado!" She's shouting and Gus joins her, angry on his friend's behalf and repeating the words, though it comes out more of an unintelligible mishmash, and he has no idea what it means. 

"You didn't tell her the games are rigged?" 

"Of course I did, but she insisted… and maybe I teased her a little, but I didn't expect… this." She waves a hand at the scene unfolding in front of them.

"¡Eso es una mierda!" Luz bangs her fist on the counter, making the carnie flinch back. Her face is twisted up in near rage.

"Yeah!" Gus shouts, slamming his too.

Willow frowns. Sure, Luz has a tendency to get carried away and caught up in the moment, but this is a little extreme even for her. She looks over at the game where Luz is glaring at the targets, shoulders bunched up and tense.

They're little placards with round, yellow eyes and slit, cat-like pupils that shine in the sun.

Willow's only seen the portal door once, maybe twice, at a glance, sitting in the living room when she's been at the owl house, but it doesn't take her more than a few seconds to make the connection given Luz's erratic behavior.

"Amity…" Willow whips toward her friend who looks back, surprised. 

"Look, kid, maybe go try another game..?" The guy looks nervous the more she shouts strange words at him.

"¡Solo dale las malditas bolas!" Luz growls, slapping another coin on the cracked wood counter, not even realizing that in her newly triggered fury she has slipped into Spanish. 

Before the guy can say anything an arm is wrapping around hers and pulling her away from the game.

She yelps and stumbles, trying to keep up and looks up after she's righted herself to see Amity quickly pulling her between some booths and into a quiet, dim alley before they finally stop and Amity faces her, though she doesn't let her go.

"Wha- Amity, I was just about to..."

"That's enough, Luz…" her voice is sharp, but it doesn't hold any anger. It does what she intended it to and Luz's mouth snaps shut with an audible click. 

Misdirected anger is still swirling in her gut but now embarrassment and shame have been added to the churning mix once she’s away from the game and its targets that had seemed to glare at her. Amity looks at her, and its equal parts sadness and understanding that only makes these feelings intensify.

"I'm sorry," she mumbles, looking at the ground. Her eyes itch and her throat is tight. The tips of Amity's boots move into her line of sight and gentle fingers on her cheek and guide her face back up.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for…," Amity tells her quietly, black painted fingers slide across the angry flush that has lingered on Luz's cheek. "Maybe we should call it a day…" it's not really a question.

"I don't wanna ruin your guy's good time…," Luz says quietly, it's almost a whimper.

"You're not. Gus and Willow will understand, and I'm not going to have a good time if I know you're not."

Luz pursed her lips but nodded after a moment.

Amity peeks her head out around the corner of the alley and waves the two over from where they had been waiting just out of sight.

"Luz and I are going to head out," she tells them, worried eyes glancing back at Luz, who's rubbing one of her arms in that nervous way they've all seen her do before.

"Okay, no worries." Willow smiles at her comfortingly and Gus nods, handing Amity the snails Luz had slammed on the counter.

"We'll see you Monday, Luz." He grins at his friend.

"Right" Luz nods and puts on a smile for them, though they all know it's forced.

They part ways, Amity pulling Luz along by the hand as they navigate through the back alleys to come out at the edge of the woods.

They walk along the dirt paths in silence, Amity's hand never letting go of hers. 

Luz frowns, looking down at the dirt and leaves crunching under her feet. 

A cold wind breezes through the trees and tousles her hair. She glances up to look at Amity, a small part of her expecting her to be angry or upset for making a scene at the festival, but she catches her eye looking back at her and all she can see is worry in their golden depths, which somehow, is both comforting and worse. 

She takes a deep breath and sighs heavily. 

"I'm sorry about… all that," she finally says.

"I told you, there's nothing to be sorry for, Luz," Amity insists, looking at her pointedly.

Luz hums, turning away from the intense gaze. It's hard to get out words when those eyes are trained so intently on her right now.

"Can… Can we talk now? About… ya know?" Luz asks, looking at Amity from the corner of her eye, almost afraid she'll say no, even though she knows better. It's still a relief when Amity speaks.

"Of course," she says.

Now it's Luz tugging her along as she pulls her down a different path then the one they had been walking down that led to the owl house.

They walk in quiet for a while before Amity realizes where they are going.

She can see the bright, pink leaves of their tree long before they are standing under it.

Once they are, she can see that they're starting to turn crimson at the bottom. Deep and warm, standing out in stark contrast to the pinks.

Luz let's go of her hand and shoves hers into her pockets, shoulders hunched. Amity wants to reach out and comfort her, but she doesn't. She knows Luz will come to her when she's ready, or she wouldn't have let go of her hand.

Amity sits at the base of the tree, back against the rough bark, and waits, watching Luz scuff her shoe in the dirt.

The sun isn't setting yet, but it is dipping down closer to the horizon, casting long orange rays of light over the cliffside. 

"How did you know?" she asks finally.

"I didn't, Willow did. I'd never seen the portal." Luz hums and Amity pauses. She knows what this is about, of course, but it still feels invasive to ask, like poking a fresh wound. "Is it your mom?"

Luz’s jaw works soundlessly for a minute. 

"I… I miss her… but… I hardly think about her or the human realm anymore…," Luz finally managed to spit out the words, and saying them out loud makes her flinch. 

"I don't understand…" Amity's brow furrows in confusion. Maybe she didn't know what this was about. "I thought you missed your home and mom."

Luz whips around to face her.

"No, I don't, that's the problem!" she finally says and Amity's eyes widen.

"When I first came here I thought about my mom and the human world all the time, but now, it's like… a background thought." She starts pacing. "For a while there I didn't think about it at all until I got the reminder on my phone the day I was supposed to leave… hadn't thought about her or our house at all…" she stops her pacing, looking at the dirt. "Whenever someone says 'home', I don't think about my mom or our house on the corner at the edge of the woods anymore…" she bites her lip.

Amity waits quietly.

"I think about the owl house. I think about Eda, King, and Hooty, even Lilith…," she sighed raggedly, emotions welling up behind her eyes and she walks over to flop to the ground in front of Amity. "After the last time we were here I went home, and I was laying in bed and… I was so happy… and just as I was about to fall asleep I thought…" She pauses trying to say the words. "I thought: I don't ever wanna leave." She looks up at Amity and her eyes are shiny, tears pooling in the corner "And I felt terrible because it's true...I don’t ever want to leave."

"What about your life there?" It's all Amity can do to ask as she sits, half-stunned at Luz's confession. Luz pulls her knees up to her chest.

"Do you remember what I told you at the dance, in your backyard?" she asks and Amity frowns, knowing exactly what she's talking about. She'd tried hard not to think about that too much.

"That you didn't have any friends… that you were lonely," she says quietly. Luz nods.

"I was the school freak… no one wanted to hang out with me, I was never picked for any teams and when we did projects kids would rather work on their own then do it with me… I've been shoved into lockers… and trash cans… it was like a right of passage to prank or pick on me at my old school…," she mumbles, looking at the ground, she can't look at Amity's face right now, knowing that tears are starting to overflow.

Amity's fists clench and she feels searing anger course through, but louder then the anger is the heartache she feels pulsating in her chest at the broken tone of Luz's voice.

"Here, I have Eda and King, Gus and Willow, and all our classmates that are happy to work with me when we do projects… I have you." She finally looks up and the tears have started to slowly slide down her cheeks. 

Amity's chest is tight, so tight it hurts as she stares into Luz’s shiny, brown eyes, the orange rays of light reflecting off them and the tear tracks on her face.

"No one understood me back home, even my mom. I know she just wanted to help, but I don't like taxes or public radio, and I don't want to!" she shouts, throwing out her arms, anger coloring her words.

"I like training Griffins with Viney and learning Illusions with Gus and almost getting my hand bitten off by man-eating plants with Willow, I love learning magic with Eda and Lillith and finally getting to be myself and people not hating me for it!" she's yelling, words choked and choppy by the end, frustration and anger rolling off her in waves even as tears pour down her face.

Amity just stares at her with wide eyes as Luz vents all her frustrations, panting and fists clenched.

"Luz…" Amity can only breathe her name. Her girlfriend's pain is palpable and Amity doesn't know what to do or say and she feels helpless. 

Luz looks at her and all the hot anger seems to drain away leaving only her frustration and tears.

"I…," she hiccups. "I love my mom, and I miss her so much, but… I've been thinking about it a lot, and I realized that if Eda told me she found a way to send me back I… I wouldn't want to go," she chokes on a breath and tears drip off her chin to the dirt. "I want to stay here... even though I'm hurting her... I'm selfish and I hate myself for it…," she sobs, burying her head in her hands and Amity can't take it anymore. 

She shoots forward and grabs Luz, pulling her into her chest as she leans back against the bark of their tree, Luz curled up between her legs, head on her chest, tucked protectively under Amity's chin as she sobs.

"You're not selfish…," Amity breathes, her hold tight, a hand running gently up and down her back while the other is threaded through her hair, holding her close. She can feel the tears on her neck and soaking through her shirt.

"It's okay to want to be happy…," Amity chokes, as tears of her own fall. Luz's pain is so visceral, to see her like this feels like a hand squeezing around her heart; threatening to pop it.

Luz cries for a long time, cries until she doesn't have the energy to shed more tears or the breath to sob. The whole time Amity holds her close, whispering loving words into her ear, and slowly the sobs quiet and the tears cease to fall.

It's well and truly dark by the time her breathing has evened out. She takes a last shuddering breath and all she feels is exhaustion, but strangely, also a little lighter.

She didn't expect baring her grief to feel this way… almost freeing, not having to keep it all inside, having someone to share it with. It was just this time yesterday that she'd told Amity that they needed to be able to lean on each other, that they were here for each other, and it's only now, post two hours of sobbing into her girlfriend's chest, that she sees just how true that is with crystal clarity. 

Sees just what it means to have someone who will gladly help you carry your burdens because they love you. 

Pain lingers in her chest, but no longer is it a crushing pressure, threatening to crack her ribs.

Amity hasn't said anything for a while, but her hand runs up and down her back without pause, it's constant pressure comforting. 

She sniffles, burying her face in Amity's neck and let's that sweet, flowery smell she's become so acquainted with fill her senses.

The love and affection she feels from the girl holding her is a balm on her raw feelings.

"Thank you..." Her voice is scratchy and her throat tender.

"I'm here if you need me, querida," Amity mumbles into her hair, grip tightening and Luz can't help but smile wetly, no matter how small, into her neck.

She can tell that the word still doesn't roll off her tongue naturally, words of affection still being relatively new to Amity after years of not receiving or giving them to anyone.

But she tries, tries so hard for her, and that, more than anything else, means more to Luz then she knows how to express. It warms her bruised heart in a way that is hard for her to describe, no matter how many sappy books and over the top fanfics she's read that have tried to describe this very feeling that's swelling in her chest and she understands why it's so hard to put into written words, much less spoken.

So she settles for ones that she hopes convey it all.

“I love you,” she mumbles against her neck and feels Amity squeeze.

“I love you too,” she says back just as quietly. 

Luz finally, reluctantly, pulls out of Amity's hold and scrubs at her cheeks. Her legs are asleep and buzzing in that painful way.

She sees the flash of a familiar pink spell circle and an orb of light floats between them, lighting up the darkness, making her squint.

Amity’s own eyes are rimmed with red from her own tears.

Luz takes a breath, trying to bring some life back to herself.

“This has been the longest weekend ever…,” she huffs finally and Amity can only agree with the sentiment. 

“It really has…,” she mumbles and despite the heaviness, she still feels, Luz wants to wipe the frown off Amity’s face.

“I’m sorry I didn’t win you a prize…,” she says suddenly and Amity blinks at her, eyes wide. Once the words have sunk in she can’t help but chuckle and Luz also smiles. It’s small but a smile all the same. 

“It’s okay, Luz.” She smiles.

They just stare at each other for a minute before Amity stands and holds her hand out.

“Come on, I’ll walk you home.” 

Luz takes her hand and Amity helps steady her on her deadened limbs before they leave the cliffside, her hand wrapped around Luz’s. It's colder now that the sun has gone down and they aren’t huddled together. 

Most of the walk is silent until they approach the house, it’s warm lights bright in the dark of the woods. 

“I think I’m just going to stay home the rest of the weekend…,” Luz says quietly. 

“Me too…” Amity agrees. She hesitates not sure if she should voice her question or not, but in the end, she does. “Are you going to be okay?” her voice is small but in the quiet of the woods Luz hears it clearly and she sighs heavily through her nose.

“Yeah… I will” she nods, turning to face Amity.

“Okay” Amity accepts the answer, she doesn’t know if it’s true or not, but if Luz says she is, she’s going to accept it. She leans in to peck her lips softly but doesn’t immediately pull away, their foreheads pressed together and Luz looks back at her, exhausted, but affection is clear in her face. 

Amity chews on her words a second and Luz waits, knowing the look on Amity’s face. She’s trying to decide something. 

“If you’re selfish then I must be really selfish…,” she finally mumbles, frowning. and Luz’s eyes widen a fraction. “...because I don’t ever want you to leave either,” she breathes and Luz can feel it ghost across her face. 

Luz swallows thickly. She meant every word she’d said tonight. As much as she misses her mom, she never felt like she belonged in the human world, an outsider, and especially not now that she knows that there’s a place where she really belongs.

“I’m going to keep looking for a way…,” she finally says. “I have to at least let her know, somehow, that I’m okay… but this is my home,” Luz whispers, and Amity’s hand around hers squeezes. 

“I’ll help you any way I can,” Amity promises and Luz can’t help the pull at the corners of her lips and she nods. 

“So, I guess we’ll just be selfish together then?” she asks, and Amity’s mouth also twitches up in a small smile.

“Yeah”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo, longest one yet...  
> I didn't intend for... *waves hands vaguely at this* but here we are. and as promised, an explanation of 'last week' and why the owl house has some new rules.
> 
> Also, I didn't think this needed to be said, but if anyone thinks their getting more then a T rating out of me for this pair then you in the wrong place. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it, and I'm always taking prompts and suggestions for further chapters.

**Author's Note:**

> Geez this ended up being long.  
> Anyway I am taking suggestions/prompts for these at my discretion.  
> Someone wanted "Amity and Luz's first big fight, disagreement" hopes this scratches yall's itch.


End file.
